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May 29, 2023
This week’s themeCoined words This week’s words rusticle infodemic interrobang tulgey nobodaddy 
Rusticles on the Titanic
Photo: NOAA Previous week’s theme Metaphors & idioms 
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu GargReader Don Kellogg of Novato, California, wrote: “I couldn’t find asporteist in my dictionary or in Google.” Well, now you can, at least in Google. And these days that’s the first step to getting a word into a dictionary. I coined the word a couple of weeks back while introducing a week of words from ball games. The word resonated with many readers. Going by how many wrote to say the word describes them and that they would use the word, it just might get into a dictionary. We’ll see. Meanwhile, this week we’ll see five words that are in Google and in the dictionary. Have you ever coined a word? Share below or email us at words@wordsmith.org. Be sure to Google first to check it’s not already out there. Sometimes two (or more) people independently come up with the same word. rusticle
PRONUNCIATION:
(RUHS-tuh/ti-kuhl)
MEANING:
noun:
An icicle-like formation of rust, as on an underwater shipwreck.
ETYMOLOGY:
A blend of rust + icicle, coined by oceanographer Robert Ballard while
describing such formations on the hull of the Titanic, the wreckage of
which he discovered. Earliest documented use: 1986.
USAGE:
“Andrea Leadsom [British MP] resigned, forcing a mini-reshuffle. This
was not so much rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic, as getting
into James Cameron’s mini-submarine, dropping to the wreck 12,500 ft
below, sweeping down the rusticle-festooned grand staircase, and
swapping out one of the light fittings because it looks ‘a bit much’.” Marina Hyde; Exit Theresa May; The Guardian (London, UK); May 24, 2019. See more usage examples of rusticle in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector
enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today. -John
F. Kennedy, 35th US president (29 May 1917-1963)
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